Animal

ANIMAL

for Link


Dog-tired means you would,
in your human form,
stretch yourself out full
length at any doorstep,
across a hearth, under a table, foot
twitching and with no apologies
for the space you take, for the warmth
you breathe in, for the smell you give
off. That you'd forget your usual concern
of tidying up your limbs into a proper curl
in a sanctioned bed where few could witness
the sleeping: the blind naiveté
of the unaware carcass. Dog-tired means
your bones assume the ground
and the ground assumes your bones.
And your ear, like the small hollow
of a child's palm, pulls up the faint
work of heavy-shelled beetles
from the underside of floorboards--the tap,
tap, tap of easy existence. And the pain
you have caused and the wrong
done to you is absorbed into nothing
but what the ground offers
us all. That in your dreaming
you would chase a winged rabbit, catching it
with bite and snarl then shake
until tooth finds the crackle of bone
and you would live
a careless moment in guiltless blame.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• poetry
• poems
• poem
• dogs

[mft1234]

Makes me want to spend a future life as a dog...or become less concerned about needless worries.

[tinySpectacle]

@mft1234 Hey, how ya been? Yeah, the dogs have it.

[HerAeolianHarp]

Your poem is so lovely and lean and true, but flexible enough to encompass a wealth of great concrete detail while leaving room for the abstractions of our lives: careless moments, guiltless blame, lessons learned. I love the swaying rhythms of "your bones assume the ground

and the ground assumes your bones." I'm going to rest my tired eyes in this pleasing poem to round out a long day of English teaching and fiddling with my own half-written poems. Nice work as always. :) - Erika

[tinySpectacle]

@HerAeolianHarp What a very encouraging comment, to know this poem was a respite for a fellow teacher and poet. I hope sometime soon I will get to see one of your poems!!

[maankindj]

so that's how 1.21 min can move a whole day

thank you

[tinySpectacle]

@maankindj

Thanks so much for that kind comment--it makes this post worth the time and effort.

[twohawksfucking]

Absolutely a treat to see this--echoing an earlier comment, Lo. I dearly love and admire this line, too: "Dog-tired means / your bones assume the ground /

and the ground assumes your bones." What a cool shot of Consciousness!

Bravo!

[marycigarettes]

in one of my more vexed moments, i am going to read this to my golden retriever.......it's really good lo.

[tinySpectacle]

@VoxNeruda And, really, what is "clean" anyway? Just one step away from the inevitable dirty.

[VoxNeruda]

So, dog-tired precludes chasing pussy?

[VoxNeruda]

@tinySpectacle Scrubbing is a bother.

Wait long enough and it sloughs on its own.